11 Fruit Tree Varieties You Can Plant in November

Are you looking for ways to increase your landscape’s beauty and variety, attract pollinators, feed birds, or produce extra food crops? Fruit trees can satisfy all of these requirements! Many fruit trees produce showy flowers or colorful fall foliage. Their flowers and fruits support pollinators and help feed the birds.

Fall months of October and November are the ideal time for planting fruit trees because they provide the ideal balance of cooler and warmer weather to help your new trees get established before winter sets in. Your plants will have time to settle briefly before going dormant for the winter. In the spring, they’ll be ready to launch into a flurry of vibrant, fresh, new growth. 

Apple ‘Honeycrisp’

	botanical name Malus pumila ‘Honeycrisp’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 8 – 18 feet
	hardiness zones 3 – 8

I love apples, and ‘Honeycrisp’ always ranks at the top of my list of favorite apple varieties. Their sweet-tangy crunch is a perfect snack anywhere, anytime. They’re also excellent for baking! Honeycrisp apples are medium-sized with mottled red and yellow-green skin and firm, crunchy flesh. 

These moderately sized fruit trees are highly productive and should be planted in October or November, then pruned in late winter to maintain an appealing, rounded form. Their spring-blooming blossoms are prolific and attract an abundance of pollinators.

Apples ripen in September or October and store very well, so you’ll enjoy plenty of opportunities to eat these tasty fruits throughout the fall. After harvesting, these trees produce beautiful yellow, orange, and red fall foliage for a final color display. 

Asian Pear ‘Shinko’

	botanical name Pyrus pyrifolia ‘Shinko’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 8 – 20 feet
	hardiness zones 4 – 9

If you aren’t familiar with these tasty fruits, Asian pears resemble a cross between an apple and a pear. The large, crunchy pears look like yellow or pale brown-skinned apples. They have juicy white flesh with a good crunchy texture. Eat them by themselves or add them to salads or fruit salads. They’re delicious!

While you may love to eat Asian pears, they aren’t the easiest fruit trees to grow. Unfortunately, these trees are highly susceptible to fire blight which damages the blossoms, pears, young twigs, and entire limbs. ‘Shinko’ is a cultivar with good resistance to fire blight, and therefore, a good choice for home landscapes. You’ll want at least two different varieties of Asian pear to ensure cross-pollination for the best fruit set. 

Blueberry ‘Duke’

	botanical name Vaccinium ‘Duke’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 5 – 6 feet
	hardiness zones 4 – 7

Blueberries are some of the first berries you can harvest each year. These five to six-foot tall shrubs are not just for food—they make fantastic landscaping plants! Blueberries attract pollinators, make great hedges, have beautiful fall foliage, and, best of all, they’re remarkably easy to grow. 

The ‘Duke’ cultivar produces an abundance of delicious little blueberries that ripen in early summer. Enjoy handfuls of healthy blueberries for breakfast, lunch, or a midday snack. You’ll need a sunny plot with organically rich soil for the best fruit production. The soil should also be consistently moist, well-drained, and acidic. Can you make room for a blueberry bush in your landscape? If so, you’ll be richly rewarded for your efforts.

Cherry ‘Lapins’

	botanical name Prunus avium ‘Lapins’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 12 – 18 feet
	hardiness zones 5 – 8

Imagine picking and eating cherries fresh off the tree in your own backyard! If you love the sweet taste of cherries, the ‘Lapins’ cherry might be a great choice for your landscape. This small tree reaches a mature height of about 18 feet and has an attractive rounded crown. Untended, this tree can reach 40 feet high.

It produces an abundance of beautiful white flowers each spring and brings in a multitude of early-season pollinators. The autumn foliage is also beautiful, with shades of yellow, orange, and red. 

The cherries on this tree are the natural highlight. These cherries are abundant, firm, and bright red. They also taste great! Harvest them by the handful straight off the tree and into a snack bowl.

If you can’t eat them all at once, process them into jams and jellies, or use them to bake a cherry pie. The ‘Lapins’ cultivar is self-fertile and will produce plenty of cherries on its own, making it a good choice if you have space for only one tree.

Crabapple ‘Wickson’

	botanical name Malus ‘Wickson’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 12 – 16 feet
	hardiness zones 5 – 9

Crabapples may be better known for the intense displays of spring blossoms than as high-quality fruits. Some crabapple varieties do produce tasty, edible apples, however, and ‘Wickson’ is a good example.

These sweet-tart mini apples ripen in the fall with great vigor, so you’ll have plenty of little apples for munching, baking, preserving, or making cider! They are long-lasting and can easily be stored in a cool place until you’re ready for a crunchy snack. 

When growing crabapples for their fruits, you’ll need to grow another variety nearby with a similar flowering time. These trees will then attract a multitude of pollinators, which will cross-pollinate your trees.

Without another crabapple tree, you’ll still have a profusion of blossoms, but few, if any, apples. Select a site with full sun and moist, well-drained soil. Since these trees reach only about 16 feet at maturity, they’re a good choice for smaller yards. 

Fig ‘Brown Turkey’

	botanical name Ficus carica ‘Brown Turkey’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 10 – 30 feet
	hardiness zones 6 – 9

Do figs seem delicate and exotic? If you live in a relatively mild climate, you might be surprised to learn that you can grow figs in your own garden! ‘Brown Turkey’ figs are both highly prolific and easy to grow.

These low-maintenance trees love plenty of sunlight and rich, moist soil with good drainage. Do you have limited space or a cooler climate? Fig trees can be pruned to grow in containers and safely overwintered indoors.

The ‘Brown Turkey’ fig produces in mid to late summer. At their peak ripeness, these fruits become pale green with maroon highlights. They should be picked as soon as they are ripe because they quickly over-ripen if left on the tree.

In the likely event that you end up with more fruits than you can eat, figs are perfect for drying for long-term storage. You can also freeze them and blend them into smoothies, or try a new canning recipe for fig preserves or pickled figs!

Pawpaw

	botanical name Asimina triloba
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 15 – 30 feet
	hardiness zones 5 – 9

For anyone looking for an attractive native tree that also produces edible fruits, consider the pawpaw. This small tree is native to the southeastern United States and loves moist soil. It does well in full sun but seems to prefer some light shade since it naturally grows as an understory tree at the edges of moist woodlands. 

In early spring, you’ll see unusual brown-maroon flowers along the bare, leafless stems. Wildlife and humans love the sweet, creamy fruits. These oblong pawpaws are soft and full of yellowish flesh that is delicious when eaten fresh. The taste is a cross between bananas and pears, although creamy like a firm custard, with a couple of large, smooth, flattened seeds in the middle. 

Pear ‘Seckel’

	botanical name Pyrus communis ‘Seckel’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 10 – 16 feet
	hardiness zones 5 – 8

The Seckel pear is a small tree growing 10 to 16 feet tall. It’s considered an heirloom variety that seems to have been discovered growing in Pennsylvania in the late 1700s. These hardy trees have good resistance to fire blight and don’t require another pear tree nearby to produce pears. Plant your Seckel pear in a location with abundant sunshine and moist but well-drained soil. 

Seckel pear trees are prolific and will try to produce more fruits than they can realistically support. Thin fruits when they’re young and allow them to ripen on the tree to produce a strong crop of larger, tastier pears. The pears are golden red with firm flesh. They’re perfect for snacking and slicing when they ripen in mid-summer.

Persimmon ‘Fuyu’

	botanical name Diospyros kaki ‘Fuyu’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 20 – 30 feet
	hardiness zones 7 – 10

Asian persimmon trees are some of the easiest fruit trees to grow in moderately warm, moist climates, ideal for November plantings in zones 7-10. ‘Fuyu’ is a popular cultivar that produces abundant, long-lasting fruits. The persimmons slowly ripen over the summer, changing from green to finally bright orange by mid-fall.

Once they are fully orange, they can be harvested and eaten. Firm persimmons will be crunchy and sweet and fully edible except for the occasional large, smooth, black seeds in the middle. Leave them to ripen further and they will become a deep reddish-orange color, softer and sweeter, and develop a more creamy texture. 

‘Fuyu’ persimmon trees are hardy and vigorous. They require full sun with moist, well-drained soil. Stiff, brown flowers bloom along the stems in the spring but aren’t particularly obvious or showy. The fall foliage, however, is beautiful, as the leaves become bright red and orange, similar to the fully ripe fruits. The fruits can hang on the tree even after the foliage has fallen at the end of the season. 

American Plum

	botanical name Prunus americana
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 10 – 20 feet
	hardiness zones 4 – 9

The American plum is a small fruit tree native to North America, perfect for planting in November if the ground is not frozen. In the home landscape, you’ll appreciate its profusion of showy, white, spring-blooming blossoms and the many pollinators they attract.

Small, burgundy red plums ripen in mid-summer and are fully edible, and while they may not be as sweet and perfect as store-bought plums, they’re much easier to grow. In the fall, the foliage becomes golden yellow and burgundy for a satisfying end of the growing season. 

These trees are wonderful additions to a wildlife-friendly landscape. Pollinators love the flowers, birds love the ripe plums, and many insects and small animals will use these trees for shelter. The American plum is also the larval host plant for several species of butterflies, including coral hairstreaks, eastern tiger swallowtails, and spring azure butterflies.

Pomegranate ‘Wonderful’

	botanical name Punica granatum ‘Wonderful’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 10 – 20 feet
	hardiness zones 8 – 11

The only way to grow pomegranates in cooler climates is in a container that you bring in for the winter. If you’re in the sunny south, however, you can grow pomegranates outdoors year-round! Pomegranates are large shrubs or small trees native to the Middle East and Mediterranean region. They do well with light shade, and are drought-tolerant and are a good choice for smaller spaces.

‘Wonderful’ is a popular pomegranate cultivar that’s easy to grow. They have bright red-orange trumpet-shaped flowers each spring and plump, rounded, red fruits by mid-summer. These tough-skinned fruits are super showy and edible.

Within the leathery skin are hundreds of little oblong seeds, each surrounded by sweet-tart bright red fruit. Pomegranates are a uniquely delicious, nutritious, and exotic-looking addition to your landscape.

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